Blog Rank Tools

This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me my rifle is useless. Without my rifle, I am useless. I must fire my rifle true. I must shoot straighter than the enemy who is trying to kill me. I must shoot him before he shoots me. I will. My rifle and I know that what counts in war is not the rounds we fire, the noise of our burst, or the smoke we make. We know that it is the hits that count. We will hit. My rifle is human, even as I am human, because it is my life. Thus, I will learn it as a brother. I will learn its weaknesses, its strengths, its parts, its accessories, its sights and its barrel. I will keep my rifle clean and ready, even as I am clean and ready. We will become part of each other. Before God I swear this creed. My rifle and I are the defenders of my country. We are the masters of our enemy. We are the saviors of my life. So be it, until victory is America's and there is no enemy. - Marine Corps Rifleman's Creed.

Having just completed the paperwork necessary to refinance a home mortgage, it is appropriate to share a few thoughts.

First, there is a reason people hate lawyers, to wit, the preposterous number of signatures required. For a simple refinance, same residence no second mortgage, it required a total of 32 signatures and 14 initials to consummate all of the necessary documents.

Second, why is it essential to disclose one’s race and ethnicity to borrow money?

Third, it was in sum a positive move. The refinance resulted in a 5-1 ARM at %4.5.

TO INTERNET SNS FROM THE MCEN NIPRNET, INCLUDING OVER VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORK (VPN) CONNECTIONS.

The SNS mentioned in the order include,

FACEBOOK, MYSPACE, AND TWITTER.

At first blush this may not appear to be a radical move by the Marine Corps. After all, it is rational for an organization to ban the use of websites that are used exclusively for gossip about old high-school friends, taking useless quizzes, and online dating.

According to 10 USC 152(c), the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff “outranks all other offers of the armed forces.” Thus, Admiral Mullen is the highest ranking member of the armed forces. As the most senior military officer it would seem important for Marines to remain aware of what the Chairman has to say.

Until recently I was blissfully ignorant of the burning of suspected witches in Africa. This is an unbelievable problem, and one that is not getting sufficient attention. Apparently Kenya, specifically the area around Kisii, is plagued with witch burnings.

The mob dragged them out of their houses and burned them individually and then set their homes alight, our correspondent says. Enoch Obiero, a Pentecostal minister, says the mob came to his door and dismembered his wife, a retired schoolteacher.

In 1993, eight elderly people from Kisii were also accused of witchcraft and burned to death in their huts by a mob.

These killings are not limited to the Kisii area, witch burnings have also occurred in the Malindi district of Kenya. From the Daily Nation,

“I can confirm that seven elderly people have been lynched on suspicion of practicing witchcraft in my Gongoni Location in a relatively short time,” said district officer Patrick ole Ntutu.According to statistics from the local police station, at least 14 elderly people had been killed between last year and January in Magarini constituency alone. . . . In just two months, five elderly people have been hacked to death by gangs of youths purporting to be cleansing the villages of witchcraft.

“This is unacceptable. People must not take the law into their own hands simply because they suspected someone,” said Mwangi Ngunyi, the head of Nyamaiya district. “We will hunt the suspects down,” he added.

Though he condemned vigilante acts, Mr. Ngunyi stated that the government will hunt the suspects down. Suspects? These people are suspected of being witches. How in the world is the government going to “hunt” these people? This also reveals that government officials believe in witchcraft. What can possibly be done to stop these horrific murders if government officials believe in witches?

Esquire magazine has a story about former Trojan great Todd Marinovich, Todd Marinovich: The Man Who Never Was. Trojan fans will remember Marinovich, or Marijuanavich, as the starting quarterback for the Men of Troy in the 1989 and 1990 seasons. He was first freshmen quarterback ever named to the All-PAC 10 team and led USC to victory in the Rose Bowl against Michigan, sending Bo Schembechler into retirement with a loss in his final game.

He has never eaten a Big Mac or an Oreo or a Ding Dong. When he went to birthday parties as a kid, he would take his own cake and ice cream to avoid sugar and refined white flour. He would eat homemade catsup, prepared with honey. He did consume beef but not the kind injected with hormones. He ate only unprocessed dairy products. He teethed on frozen kidney. When Todd was one month old, Marv was already working on his son’s physical conditioning. He stretched his hamstrings. Pushups were next. Marv invented a game in which Todd would try to lift a medicine ball onto a kitchen counter. Marv also put him on a balance beam. Both activities grew easier when Todd learned to walk. There was a football in Todd’s crib from day one. “Not a real NFL ball,” says Marv. “That would be sick; it was a stuffed ball.”

Marinovich’s life did not turn out as planned. His NFL career only lasted three years with the Raiders. And things when down from there. He was most recently arrested, in April 2009, for failing to appear in drug court.

[T]he Court has sanctioned the use of speech as evidence in establishing that ….

Is that “sanctioned” in the sense of “approved” or in the sense of “punished” (a common use of the term “sanction” in litigation)? The reader should be able to figure this out from context, but it’s usually better not to put the reader to the work of having to do that, or risk even briefly leading the reader in the wrong direction.

A word I have always found vexing in the military context is “secure.”

Judge Cofield was arrested and charged with a DUI after she ran her BMW into a state trooper’s vehicle. A recent video was released showing Judge Cofield referring to the arresting officer as “Negro Washington.” She then asked the officer “if a Negro was sent to arrest a Negro.”

The views expressed on this blog are offered in the contributors' personal capacity. They do not purport to be speaking for, and their views should not be imputed to, any other organization, agency, or entity.